Paul Scheer juggling projects
It is not a surprise to find that Paul Scheer talks fast. He doesn’t have time not to.
As a performer, writer, director and/or producer at the center, middle or edge of a wide variety of creative projects — mostly but not exclusively in the world of comedy (mainstream and fringe) — Scheer, 43, keeps up a career that would make a bee feel like a slacker.
You will have seen him on television, with his his gap-toothed smile, in good wigs (Showtime’s “Black Monday,” whose first season concludes Sunday), bad ones (as in his Adult Swim action parody “NTSF:SD:SUV”) or with no wig at all, as a regular in FX’s “The League” or in recurring roles on ABC’s “Fresh Off The Boat” and HBO’s “Veep.”
You may have heard him, as a voice on “Adventure Time” or “Big Mouth,” or on one or both of his podcasts. “How Did this Get Made?” — which he has hosted since 2010 with his wife, comedian-actress June Diane Raphael, and comedian-actor Jason Mantzoukas — is about terrible movies, and “Unspooled,” which he cohosts with film critic Amy Nicholson, is about ostensibly great ones.
He’s onstage too, at Largo with his “Hanging with Paul Scheer,” which he describes as “a showand-tell show, like a dinner party with props,” or at the Upright Citizens Brigade
“I think podcasting has made me a better writer.” — Paul Scheer
Theater, where he improvises regularly. For that matter, you may have read him: “Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History,” his latest series for Marvel Comics, written with Nick Giovannetti, began appearing in early March.
“The benefit of what we get to do, for as long as we’re here, is to try everything we possibly can,” Scheer told me recently. “I think podcasting has made me a better writer; what I’ve learned from comic book writing has made me a better director.”
The following is an edited transcript.
Q: How did you get started in comedy?
A: I grew up on Long Island. My parents were divorced and my dad would be, like, “Let’s go see stuff in the city.” And so we would go to this church basement and see Chicago City Limits, a short-form “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” improv show. And I fell in love with it. They had classes, and my dad would drive me into the city. (Later, attending) NYU to become a teacher, I got that creative itch, and I fell back in with them.
Then the Upright Citizens Brigade came to town. I started taking classes with them, and as their theater was building up, they were, “We want you to do shows.” UCB was nothing back then, but it was the totally right choice. I made my best friends there. I got to audition for “Saturday Night Live,” I started to do bits on “Conan.” A whole world opened up.